


First Impressions

by servantofclio



Series: Val Shepard [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 07:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5699911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard and Vakarian's first impressions of each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm moving over some ficlets that have been languishing on tumblr. This one has Shepard's POV on first meeting Garrus.

Shepard had decided that she liked the detective before he said anything about joining her team. She didn’t know how Vakarian had managed to get into the clinic unseen, but the shot he’d fired at the hostage-taking thug was a thing of beauty. A risk, definitely, but if he was good enough to take advantage of the distraction her entrance had provided, she wasn’t going to complain. At least it had resolved the hostage problem elegantly.

To be perfectly honest, she’d felt a certain sympathy for the turian back when she’d first seen him. If he’d only had the few days since Eden Prime to make a case against Saren, no wonder he was demanding more time. She didn’t have a lot of experience with turians, barring a few joint training exercises, but his frustration and irritation were obvious enough, even to a human. So when he asked to join her, she didn’t think for more than a moment before saying yes. Yeah, she wanted his aim and his investigative experience on her side.

Alenko took point and Williams took up the rear, while Vakarian fell in beside her. He had to shorten his long strides to match her. With a sidelong glance, Shepard lengthened her step to help compensate. Vakarian adjusted to her changed pace easily enough. She looked him over as subtly as she could, trying to pick out the details that set him apart from other turians. The visor he wore over one eye was distinctive enough, but she’d need something more than that if he ever took it off. Maybe a shade taller than average—taller than she was, but that wasn’t unusual for the species; blocky blue facial markings that coordinated remarkably well with his C-Sec armor. Blue eyes, too, pale and bright and sharp.

It would probably be too nosy to ask what he used the visor for. They’d only barely met.

“So what do you have on Saren?” she asked him instead, keeping her voice quiet as they made their way through the ward.

“Not enough,” he replied in a pleasant flanged baritone. “I don’t have clearance to look at most of Saren’s case files. The Council keeps giving me the runaround. I’m not sure if they’re actively covering up whatever he’s involved in, or just protecting their own out of habit. Whichever it is, I’ve been chasing dead ends, and they’re suggestive, but not enough to sway the Council. This lead—” he tipped his head back toward the clinic, disappearing behind them “—that’s the best I’ve had.”

Shepard gave him a taut grin. “We won’t lose it, then. This sounds like a thankless assignment. Who’d you piss off to get it?”

The turian blinked and stared at her, his mandibles shifting up and out in an odd motion. She wasn’t sure how to read the expression until he sputtered out a laugh. “Executor Pallin, I suppose. It’s… I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

She raised her eyebrows. “No?”

He shook his head, and she was glad that gesture translated well enough. “The Executor has a way of making assignments sound like an honor.”

“I’ll bet.” She stole another look at him, considering. “You make a habit of pissing off the Executor?”

He laughed, a low-pitched sound, and his mandibles tipped out, baring his pointed teeth. “I suppose I do.” His mandibles pulled back in as he looked back at her. “But not—your mission, your rules. I can follow orders.”

“Good to know,” Shepard said. “I appreciate some initiative, though, and I’ve met your Executor, so… I’m not too worried..”

He blinked and then the mandibles-spread smile returned. Shepard grinned back. She had a feeling that she and Vakarian were going to get along just fine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here are Garrus's first impressions of Shepard. This particular Shepard, anyway.

Garrus wasn’t sure what to make of the commander.

He still thought of her that way, even though she’d already told him he could call her Shepard. All his Hierarchy training balked at referring to his commanding officer by her bare name, without rank or honorific. He was trying to make a good impression, after all, since he was essentially a guest on a human vessel, and he knew that Chief Williams, for one, wasn’t entirely happy about his presence there.

Shepard had made enough of an impression on him from the start. He’d recognized her face from the reports he’d been reviewing, but the flat images couldn’t convey the controlled energy she carried with her. She drew the eye, even standing within the vast dim space of the Council Chambers, with her height and her bright hair and her alert green eyes taking everything in. She’d given him a sharp enough look when they met again at the clinic that he’d braced himself for the reprimand he was sure was coming, but instead her lips had spread out and up into a human grin, revealing her blunt white teeth, and she’d praised his marksmanship. That, as much as anything, was what fueled his impulse to ask to join her. Here was an officer who could cope with some risk-taking. She’d laid things out clearly enough once he’d come aboard; her orders counted, and he’d follow them, and she wasn’t going to throw out the rules of engagement entirely. 

But it wasn’t C-Sec, and just not being in his office with the din of usual C-Sec business in the corridor and Pallin crowding his spurs every other day let Garrus breathe more easily. Going after Saren mattered, a lot more than breaking petty black market trading in the wards.

He still didn’t know what to make of Commander Shepard, though. It wasn’t just the question of what she considered a tolerable risk. She had such an easy and open manner, stopping by every day for a casual check-in, sometimes asking questions about C-Sec or his experience with the Hierarchy. It was… disarming. But nothing too personal, nothing inappropriate, and he could overhear enough of her talks with Wrex and Williams to realize that she treated them all the same way. She made the same rounds every day shift, talking with each of them in turn, exchanging a few words with whoever was on duty at the requisitions station, then disappearing into engineering. Garrus had no doubt that she had the same kinds of talks with Tali and Adams and the rest of the engineering crew.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked Kaidan as they were settling down to a meal at the end of their shifts.

The lieutenant looked up from the plate he’d been regarding with brows drawn together. “Sure, Garrus. What do you need?”

They’d been on a first-name basis since he came aboard. Kaidan had approached as Garrus boarded with his one bag, saying, “Commander Shepard asked me to help you settle in, er— is it ‘officer’ or ‘detective,’ or is something else appropriate?”

Garrus had shrugged. “Since I’m not at C-Sec right now, Garrus will be just fine.”

Kaidan had smiled and introduced himself in turn, and somehow they’d been talking omni-tool mods within minutes. He’d been the friendliest out of the entire crew to the non-humans, though Shepard clearly set the tone for everyone; no one was genuinely hostile.

“The way the commander makes a point of talking to everyone— is that normal for a human vessel?”

Kaidan burst out laughing. Garrus stilled and stared at him, his mandibles pulling in, as the human leaned back in his chair, his eyes squeezed shut. “No,” he said eventually, still grinning. “Not at all.”

“It would be strange in the Hierarchy,” Garrus said, mildly reassured, but also a little unsettled. “So I wasn’t sure what to think.”

Kaidan shrugged. “I would imagine Hierarchy COs tend to be more formal than Alliance officers, but… I’ve never served with anyone like Shepard. She’s… unique.”

Garrus waited as the other man speared a piece of something on his fork and ate it, but apparently no more was forthcoming. “Unique?”

He shrugged again. “Well, for starters, she has unusual qualities for a human biotic, but I won’t bore you with the details.”

Garrus nodded. It was easy to forget that the Systems Alliance trained and deployed its biotics differently than the Hierarchy did. He’d seen Shepard use her biotics once or twice, always with force and excellent timing. He was glad he’d worked with asari at C-Sec; made it easier to know what to expect.

Kaidan continued, “She’s young for the position she’s in, but if anyone can do the job, it’s her. She has an extraordinary record, and that’s just the parts I know about.”

“Extraordinary how?” Garrus asked, curious what Shepard’s reputation was like among her own people. No one—no turian, anyway—got seriously considered for Spectre without having impressive accomplishments.

“You know about the Skyllian Blitz, right?” Williams put in, taking the seat next to Kaidan as she joined the conversation. At Garrus’s nod, she went on, “She fought off an enemy assault almost single-handed. Showed those mercenary bastards humanity wasn’t just going to lie down, even if they got us by surprise.”

Kaidan nodded. “She earned the Star of Terra for that. I mean, that was years ago, I think… big parts of her record since then are classified. But she’s also one of the youngest to complete N7 training. So if she’s got the time and energy to talk to everyone every day, hell, I’m not going to complain.”

Garrus chuckled and Williams laughed, somewhat to his surprise. It was one of the first times they’d had the same reaction to anything. He wasn’t any more sure what to think of the commander, but Tali sat down beside him with her tube of nutrient paste, and Williams seemed relaxed in his presence, for once; she was asking Kaidan something about his last assignment, so Garrus decided to let the conversation turn.

He’d have to figure out Commander Shepard on his own time, anyway.


End file.
